August 31, 2014

First off, you have to give credit where credit is due. At halftime, I was scratching my head wondering what in the world Mike Bobo was doing. It was clear he knew what he was doing and had a plan along to just tear Clemson's defensive line up in the second half. Our offensive line got stronger as the game went on. The line was absolute monsters on that toss sweep were we had two or three guys pulling. David Andrews coming down the sideline on that touchdown was just nuts.

Defensively we went all in on putting pressure on the quarterback, especially once we got the lead. Jeremy Pruitt is not fancy. He doesn't care if you know what's coming; he is still playing his game and making you figure out how to beat it. In short he's everything Todd Grantham isn't as scheme coach. Clearly, he's everything Todd Grantham wasn't as a teaching coach. Guys looked prepared, they were almost always in a position to make a play, even when they didn't, and had confidence they could plays.

A few thoughts:
* Todd. Gurley.
* I still can't get over David Andrews being down field, lead blocking at the 5 yard line, after 40 yards. Just awesome.
* Hudson Mason and his receivers were not on the same page at times. That's a nit pick, and it worked out fine, but there may come a point where we need him to soften up the front or move us quickly.
* Conversely, we have a lot of really good young offensive players. And not just the running backs.
* I loved seeing some of that spread and read option stuff. Don't be surprised to see more of it.
* Our special teams are special again. This time in the good way.
* Ramik may not have been listed as the starter on the depth chart, but he was out there on the first defensive play. He still has some work to do in pass protection, but he was with receiver on that great touchdown pass by Watson. That is an improvement over last year.
* I don't know about you, but I sure liked to see us going for it on 4th down inside three minutes to go.
* It was fun to see Floyd in beast mode.
* Props to Aaron Davis with that great interception. Perfect read.
* I loved our substitution on offense and defense. I'm not sure if it was a Georgia record for participation, but it seemed like every time I looked up there was a new face in at a position somewhere.
* Happy preseason conditioning talk was not just happy talk.

A quick note about the pipped in music. I'm on the record as not a fan, but I have to admit there were times it got the fans jazz up when we wouldn't have been in the past. It helps to have the running game we do, but even in the first half, when I thought the crowd was going to get out of it, the music pumped the crowd up.

With all the positives, I'm sure there's some stuff I missed. What are your thoughts?
TD